30 Rock‘s second live outing has just been upgraded from fun stunt to must-see TV, and here’s why: Community‘s Donald Glover has been recruited to appear in the April 26 episode playing the rather key role of, um, Tracy Jordan.

The gig marks a homecoming for Glover, who previously worked as a writer on 30 Rock. He also has made a handful of blink-and-you-missed-it cameos on the Emmy-winning comedy, including one that actually foreshadowed his live episode stint.

As Carlock reveals, a special extended version of Jordan’s classic Season 1 jingle, “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah,” actually features vocals by Glover. “Tracy wasn’t available, so Donald came in and [performed the extra material],” he explains. “I don’t think you can tell. It’s pretty remarkable. All the spoken stuff is Donald doing Tracy.”

Back to the live episode, the plot revolves around Kabletown’s decision to discontinue TGS as a live show. Liz and Jack welcome the move, since shooting canned episodes will be far less time consuming. Kenneth, however, “tries to convince everyone that live television is worth doing,” explains Carlock, “and he does that by taking us back through the history of TGS.” As a result, a good portion of the half-hour features newly-created “flashbacks to old shows, and our [cast] jumps around playing all of those old parts.”

Isn’t this more of a “return to 30 Rock” for Donald Glover? I mean, he wrote for the show for a year and made a cameo in one of the eps as a PA, if I’m not mistaken. Either way, I’m looking forward to the live episode, loved the first one, hopefully they do this second one justice.

Just because a show is being snubbed by the Emmy’s does not mean it’s not a good show. That’s flawed reasoning. For a show that you don’t deem as good as 30 Rock, it has an awfully devoted fanbase who will do anything to keep it on air, critics included.

And, please share some examples on how Community is imitating 30 Rock. Are we watching the same show?

I’m a pretty big 30 Rock fan. It took Community about half a season to get to a point where it got really great, but I don’t think you could really watch its second season and still say 30 Rock is a better comedy show.

I still hate the idea of a 30 Rock live episode as I disliked the first one they did, but with Donald Glover added I am intrigued. He does do a very funny Tracy Morgan impression, I’ve seen it in his stand-up comedy.

30 Rock’s last few episodes have picked up for me. I was not a fan of last season and the start of this season had me scared, but I started liking it again starting with The Tuxedo Returns episode, so I do hope I enjoy the live episode because I have missed the early days of that show like crazy.